Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley
When I moved from the East Coast to the West Coast in 1973, credit card companies doing business in the State of Washington could not legally charge more than 12% interest on an account. That was because credit card interest rates were subject to the usury limits of the State of Washington; that was the law in every state.
In 1979, the U. S. Supreme Court justices that represented you and me ruled that the state of the lender, not of the borrower, had the sole power to legislate interest rate limits.
South Dakota then eliminated any usury limits, hoping to draw more businesses to its state. The credit card companies flocked to …